Topic: Puzzle Quest interview.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah... that's interesting.  Really?  You don't say. OH yeah, cool!

  ...

Now why don't you tell me why the game that I already bought on PSP is broken, you stupid fuck?  Oh right, because nobody mentions that one.  God forbid anyone mention *that*, ever.  They even get a cover story in that development magazine all about their raging success, yet strangely no one mentions the LAUNDRY LIST OF CRIPPLING FUCKING BUGS in the PSP version (and the DS had several of its own), like the one where I can't select any spell after level 14 because selecting 15 crashes the machine, or the one where I can't select my full spell compliment because the game seems to think I have 5 selected when I only have 4.  Yeah, nobody mention that.  That would be a travesty.

[Ghandi]

At the very least, you can make fun of his name. Steve Fawkner. Heh.

[Quemaqua]

Truthfully, he isn't directly to blame.  VCS, the company who did the port of the game, is (and likely D3, their publisher).  VCS and D3 also did Dead Head Fred, a PSP game that I'm quite enjoying (which doesn't appear to be too buggy), and they seem like decent enough guys, but let me tell you: they fucked this game over royally.

[Pugnate]

I got this for the PSP, and my sister is addicted. I haven't even tried the game yet.

[Cobra951]

So I take it the game implodes at some point?  There's some bug that ruins further play in a long game?  I'd have to know that there are fixes for anything like that before I'd buy into the XBLA version.  If they don't have the trial version up, I'm going to look for the PC demo today.  I assume there is one.

[idolminds]

Yeah, there is a PC demo. Currently no full version is released for PC, though its planned and should be out soon.

[Cobra951]

Oh, good stuff.  I'm playing the demo now.  I have a question.  Here's a pic I just took.  Sorry about the venue.  I've been too lazy to figure out my default 5MB Roadrunner webspace, so it's on my PC.  It's only 41 KB.  How does that blue tile get any legal moves from that position.  Am I missing something other than moving it to one of 4 adjacent squares?

[Ghandi]

You can't move it, you'll just have to move another tile.

[idolminds]

Things like that happen. Indirect movement is needed.

You usually need to clear the tiles around it so fresh ones drop in from above, hoping for more tiles of the same type. Or, clear the tiles below it causing it to drop further into the board.

Looking at that screen, doing the following moves would remove that blue tile:


1 you move up to clear that row and cause the ones above to drop. You now have two skulls in a row, so you move 2 over to clear that row. The blue tile you're talking about drops one place. Tile 3 has two legal moves, but you want the one that drops the blue tile only one place, so you move tile 3 up, clearing a row, which drops the blue tile once more so it lines up with the existing two blue tiles and gives you a chain bonus for getting two clears in a row.

Of course the enemy AI may mess this plan up, but there you go.

[Cobra951]

Oh, so it's not telling me that I can move it directly?  I thought the arrow was like Bejeweled, where it's suggesting the next move.  I kept playing, and it usually points to a legal move, but occasionally, there's nothing I can do with what it points to.

This is a very neat variant of Bejeweled.  I can see getting seriously addicted to it.  I'm already lamenting that Level 7 will end the game.  I'm at Level 3.

[idolminds]

Oh, I didnt realize the game pointed to it...hmmm, then it should have a legal move. Thats odd, because I cant see any way for that to work.

[Cobra951]

That's what I thought.  Since it happened like within 3 moves of playing for the first time, I thought I was missing some other kind of move, magic, or whatever.

I love the design here.  It gets around all the negatives of Bejeweled, which has so much luck involved.  Turn-based battles with AI or I assume a 2nd player.  Very nice.

[idolminds]

The thing I hope they fix is the ability for the AI to make super combo moves. It seems like the field of tiles extends over the top of the viewable area, and the AI can see this area and you cant. So they'll make one move and just get combo after combo as the new tiles drop in. Hopefully they limit the AIs view to just the actual viewing space.

[Cobra951]

I was wondering if there was a spell to reveal what falls next.  Hey, if the AI does that, it's cheating.  I haven't seen anything like that yet, though.  I had one battle where the AI got super-lucky.  But it wasn't in combos.  The board just kept working out in its favor, including after those annoying mana drains.  I still managed to win, but I was far behind at one point.

Level 6 now.

Edit:  The most annoying thing for me is how I can't use the 1024x768 windowed mode, because I can't scroll the map down unless I can move the cursor below the window.  I've tried everything I could think of.  (Maybe there's something like an 'Alt+' method?)  The text in the 800x600 window is ridiculously tiny.  It works fine fullscreen (and native res too, at 1024x768 with my LCD set to display at 4:3).  I prefer windowed for a game like this.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I can't wait to get this game on PS2 next month, hopefully there's not any crazy bugs like there was with the PSP version.

[Quemaqua]

If it's done by Vicious Cycle, stay away from it.  If it's done by Infinite Interactive, you should be fine.

[Cobra951]

I've spent hours on this today.  The demo doesn't end with Level 7.  You just can't go on with the story, or level up past 7.  You can still get money, battle for new runes, build stuff in your citadel, then forge things and lay siege to cities.  I just got my ass handed to me as I tried to take down Gallia (a city).  215 health vs my measly 69, which somehow became 54 before I got a turn.  It's also fortified and does about twice as much damage.  I imagine this is not a good idea at Level 7.

[Quemaqua]

Stop making me want to play this again.  I don't want to go invest more hours only to have the fun potentially ripped out from under me.  =(

[Cobra951]

Is that bug just about companions, or is it a complete killer?  I probably could find out about this on my own . . .

[gpw11]

Is this a widespread problem?  It sounds like recall material to me.

[Quemaqua]

Yes, it's widespread.  Though some seem lucky enough to avoid it, but I haven't had much luck, and no version of the PSP game is apparently safe (the bugs are still there in the Euro version).

Cobra, the problems I have are several.  Firstly, it crashes when I select my level 14 spell, so I can't use that or any spell after it because in order to get to 15+ you have to scroll the cursor past 14.  So that renders the game pretty shitty in and of itself.  The companion bug is no big deal because those bonuses you miss out on are really minor, but... when attempting to select a 6th spell from my spell list, I can't. I can have five spells only. When I began the game 6 was possible, but at one point I decided to switch one spell for another, only to find the 6th spell could not be reselected.  This is not the extent of the bugs, either.  There are several others relating to building stuff and relating to capturing creatures/mounts.

[Cobra951]

That really is recall material then.  Class-action lawsuit may be possible.  Ain't gonna happen.

[TheOtherBelmont]

If it's done by Vicious Cycle, stay away from it.  If it's done by Infinite Interactive, you should be fine.

Ugh, according to Gamespot, Vicious Cycle is working on it, but now they have had some extra time to work on bugs, so hopefully that's been done, I'm going to have to sit on this one until I see some reviews from other players or maybe rent it, your post about the way they handled the PSP version has me wary.  Fuck, I was looking forward to getting this game on the ship date too.  I still don't see how the PSP version got such glowing reviews when huge bugs in the game like that exist almost making it unplayable.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I don't see how either.  Confuses me to no end.  I suspect people just played it for a little while and didn't review it properly given that it's a more casual game.  That may not be true, but it's all I can think of.

[gpw11]

That sounds about rght.  I wonder how often that actually happens.

[Cobra951]

I got the game last night on XBLA.  Played the trial for about an hour, and after that I was sold.  The controls were well-designed for a console, with the exception of backing out of menus.  One press of 'B' often sends you all the way back, when all it should do is drop you back one level in the structure.  This can get irritating.  Everything works as it should so far.  Hopefully, the bugs that plague the PSP version aren't here.  I originally wanted to wait a while to make sure complaints didn't pop up out there.  *Sigh*  I'm weak.

It goes for 1200 points, which is $15.  Not bad.  I'd have paid more.  I spent most of the night on it without noticing.  Now I'm bleary-eyed.